Completing our mental health in schools course as an advanced learner

The Carnegie School of Education’s Yorkshire School Mental Health Lead course is designed for education professionals looking to improve mental health support in their schools. The course is designed to support learners at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of skill and experience. 

Read how Fiona Rainforth found the course as an advanced learner. 

How have you found the course?

“Today has been really good. I’m sat near people who work and live near me but I’ve never met, which is incredible. I think this is a really good way of learning, to meet with your peers and collaboratively share ideas. I’ve gone through all the post-it notes from the session and wrote loads of stuff down that I can take back with me. You can tell we work in schools!”

What have you found most useful?

“Reflecting on some of the things we do in our own practise is invaluable, but also really difficult because we don’t talk about the good things we do enough. We usually only talk about things we need to do it, so it’s made us look at things differently, which is really good.
“I’m going to steal a lot of the ideas I’ve picked up today and use in my staff training. While I was here, an email came through for next staff training day, which is in September. The top spot for discussion then is going to be wellbeing, which is really valued at my school. I’m not going to have to plan nearly as much because the ideas I’ve picked up today are brilliant, and our staff will enjoy doing them too. I’m going to use what I’ve picked up over a few different sessions, because it’s inspired me.”

What impact has the course had on you and your school?

“It’s brilliant for people who are at an advanced level, because we’ll never know everything, even though we’re doing the job every day. As long as you’re reading or listening to something new, you’d be able to take that back to your work setting and change quite a lot. I have the backing of the people in my school to make changes, and I know not everyone has that empowerment, but regardless you can make a difference. I know I’ll be taking a lot of what I’ve learned at the conference back.”

Would you recommend the course to someone in a similar position?

“I’d say definitely do it and get as much out of it as you can. The resources will ignite a little spark that’s going to help you at some point in the future. This conference has people at different levels within schools and it supports senior leaders too. Getting them onboard and getting them to share these great ideas in schools is what it’s all about. Once schools start doing that among their senior leadership, it’ll be amazing.”